Лев Гунин - ГУЛаг Палестины
Basystiuk, A. Mokrenko, and F. Burchak.
On this same day, the president of Ukraine also bestowed this mark
of distinction, "for valor" upon twenty-year-old student at the
Vynnytsia Pedagogical Institute, Maksym Tsarenko.
During the summer holidays, Maksym was working as a councillor at a
summer camp for young girls near Yevpatoria, Crimea.
Haters of Ukraine, who rush to propose the view that Crimea is not a
peninsula attached to Ukraine, but rather is an island unconnected
to Ukraine, reacted with hostility to this summer camp, especially
provoked by the Ukrainian language spoken by the Ukrainian children,
which dared to resound even within Ukrainian Crimea. The hatred
mounted to such an irrepressible degree that it provoked the bandits
to the most egregious crime: they constructed an explosive and threw
it into the window of the children's dormitory. Ten or so children
could have been killed by the explosion. But the young Ukrainian
councillor showed no confusion as to his duty. He picked up the
bomb, shielding it with his own body, and jumped out of the
building. Unfortunately, the bomb went off, seriously wounding
Maksym.
The best local surgeons fought for several days to save the boy's
life. Thanks to them, the youth's life was spared. Unfortunately,
it was not possible to save his hands.
No one can accuse the recipient of not having earned his award.
Ukrainian awards, in contrast to Soviet, are fully deserved.
(Ukrainian-language newspaper, Novyi Shliakh (New Pathway) of
7Oct95, based on the earlier report in Ukrains'ke Slovo, (Ukrainian
Word), Kyiv, No. 37, 14Sep95)
The above story of Maksym Tsarenko compels me to ask - not for the first time - who
is in danger in Ukraine? The Western media urge us to accept that it is Jews and
Russians who are in danger, threatened by Ukrainian nationalists. That, for example,
is the conclusion of your infamous 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom of
23Oct94. However, you came back from your brief visit to Ukraine with no data to
substantiate such a claim. Almost a year ago, the Ukrainian Archive has requested
both of you and of Rabbi Bleich the evidence backing your report of violence against
Jews, and neither of you has as yet condescended to reply, strengthening the
suspicion that your story was fabricated.
The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able to find is one
of a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by Ukrainian
nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a Jewish
summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian nationalists for using
Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within Ukraine to either
Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians. It is the story of Ukrainians
being persecuted within Ukraine that you could have richly documented and broadcast
to the world. The story of Maksym Tsarenko can be found multiplied many times over
the torture-murders of Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Katelnytsky and his mother in
their Kyiv apartment providing a recent example. The contrasting story of Jewish or
Russian victimization within Ukraine is bogus - and yet that is the story that you
unscrupulously chose to broadcast.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Rabbi Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace.
Morley Safer Letter 9 15May99 Who murdered Volodymyr Ivasiuk?
But in the meantime, those who come too near to the truth concerning what happened to
Volodymyr Ivasiuk have been the victims of an unusual number of accidents. One man's
wife unexpectedly hangs herself, another man throws himself from a balcony, still
another drowns, yet another falls under the wheels of a car.... But remember, butchers,
God's punishment will descend even upon you!
May 15, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Murdered
Volodymyr Ivasiuk?
Volodymyr Ivasiuk is best known as a composer and poet,
author of the widely popular song Chervona Ruta whose first
two lines appear below as he wrote them in his own hand,
which song more than anything else made him beloved
throughout Ukraine, and even beyond the borders of Ukraine.
On top of that, Volodymyr was a man of many talents, having
earned a degree in medicine, and having demonstrated talent
in art, photography, and cinematography.
However, having reached his prime
showing so much promise, it was not
given Volodymyr Ivasiuk to develop his
talents further. He was dead at the age
of 30. To the right is a photograph of
his funeral procession, attended by
thousands of mourners despite the
suppression by the state of the
publication of information concerning
his burial, despite official warnings to
not attend funeral services, and despite
the calling of Komsomol meetings, which
carried mandatory attendance, on the
same day. The magazine Halas, on whose
information I rely in the present
letter, states that Rostyslaw Bratun who
was the first to step forward and speak
at Volodymyr's funeral lost his job two
months later. Words spoken at the
funeral by the Sichko family landed them
in prison.
To the right is a second photograph
showing the statue that was eventually
erected in Volodymyr Ivasiuk's memory.
And just how did Volodymyr Ivasiuk meet
his end? His death certificate which
appears below states that he died on
24-27 April 1979 from mechanical
asphyxiation caused by hanging in a
noose, and attributes the hanging to
suicide.
The details of Volodymyr Ivasiuk's death, however, do not support the official view that
he killed himself:
They waited and searched for Volodya for 24 days. Following the
mysterious disappearance of the composer, the search for him was not
disclosed to the public, the explanation being given that such an
announcement would create a disturbance. However, the mass media are
daily used not only to help locate people, but sometimes even their
pets. [...]
It was not until May 18, 1979 that Volodymyr Ivasiuk's body was
accidentally discovered in the heavy forest near the village
Briukhovych near Lviv.
One couldn't bring oneself to believe it. The parents were allowed to
identify their son only on the following day, even though it was only a
five-minute walk from the apartment where Volodya lived to the morgue;
and the identification was conducted with gross violations of law. The
father was allowed to view the body only after he repeatedly telephoned
the Oblast Procurator threatening to send a telegram of complaint to
the General Procurator of Ukraine. The local authorities eventually
gave in with the exasperated reply: "Take your son home, and look at
him there at least a hundred years!" His death certificate reported
that he died 24-27 April 1979 at the age of 30. The cause of death:
mechanical asphyxiation. Hanging from a noose - suicide. The death
certificate was issued on May 21, 1979, and even back then, a mere
three days after the body had been discovered, without any evidence or
investigation it had been written in black and white that Volodymyr
Ivasiuk had committed suicide.
There immediately arises the question that if the composer had indeed
hung himself on 24-27 April, and was not found until 18 May, whether he
could have remained hanging from a tree for 21-24 days. Volodya
weighed 80 kg (176 lb), such that hanging for so long, the noose would
have cut into his neck to the depth of the bones. Also during May the
weather was warm and dry. The body would have decomposed during this
interval, and from it would have emanated an intolerable odour. All
these substantiating signs were missing, and missing too were the
autopsy photographs.
On May 22 of every year let us remember that Volodymyr Ivasiuk became
another innocent victim of a totalitarian regime.
M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas
(Clamor), 3Jun97, pp. 11-12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.
Halas is a Ukrainian-language magazine which reviews popular music and
is published in Kyiv. The section commemorating Volodymyr Ivasiuk in
the 3Jun97 issue was sponsored and supported by Coca Cola Ukraine.
And truly, the administration hated him while he was alive, and feared
him once he was dead. Volodya's mother, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk met
with the first secretary of the Lviv administration, V. Dobryk to plead
with him to permit a monument to be placed on the grave of her son.
"The war took from me my father and three brothers. My sister's
husband did not return from the front," wept the woman, "and now my son
too has been lost. Do I not after all that have the right to
consecrate his memory?" In reply, Dobryk (what evil irony that such a
soulless individual should have a name denoting goodness) pressed a
concealed button and said in Russian to the lackey who entered, "Take
that lady out." Following this visit, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk received
the "insult in the name of Dobryk." She has been in ill health ever
since.
Sooner or later will arrive the day when truth will emerge victorious.
But in the meantime, those who come too near to the truth concerning
what happened to Volodymyr Ivasiuk find themselves the victims of an
unusual number of accidents. One man's wife unexpectedly hangs
herself, another man throws himself from a balcony, still another
drowns, yet another falls under the wheels of a car.... But remember,
butchers, God's punishment will descend even upon you!
M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas
(Clamor), 3Jun97, p. 12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.
Mr. Safer, you went to Ukraine determined to come back with a story of Ukrainians
persecuting Russians and Jews. You failed to find any substantiation for such a story.
You failed to find any Russian composer and poet who had been found hanging in a forest
under mysterious circumstances. You failed to find any Jewish composer and poet who had
been found hanging in a forest under mysterious circumstances. And you were not
interested in a Ukrainian composer and poet who had indeed been found hanging in a
forest under mysterious circumstances. You went to Ukraine determined to prove that
Ukrainians persecute Russians and Jews, and you reported that story to tens of millions
of 60 Minutes viewers despite a lack of evidence, and despite plentiful evidence that it
is Russians and Jews who persecute Ukrainians, as they have done throughout history.
In your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, then, you sided with the
strong against the weak. You sided with the oppressors against the oppressed. You
sided with the butchers against the butchered. You sided with those who hang composers
and poets and against Volodymyr Ivasiuk.
Lubomyr Prytulak
cc: Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney,
Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Simon Wiesenthal.
Morley Safer Letter 10 17May99 Who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
It is conceivable that had you not broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, Volodymyr
Katelnytsky would be alive today. And it is all the more conceivable that had you used
the opportunity of your broadcast to defend Ukrainians against their oppressors,
Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today.
May 17, 1999
Morley Safer
60 Minutes, CBS Television
51 W 52nd Street
New York, NY
USA 10019
Morley Safer:
Who Murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?
The death of Volodymyr Katelnytsky
My source is a Ukrainskyi Holos (Ukrainian Voice) article mailed to me by someone that
knew Volodymyr Katelnytsky. The citation that is hand-written on the article is "4-20
August, 1997, p. 1."
The Ukrainskyi Holos article reports that Volodymyr Katelnytsky was tortured to death in
his apartment in Kyiv, Ukraine on the night of 7-8 July 1997. His mother, Lykeria, who
was 81 years old, was tortured and died before the eyes of her son; her body was found
with 21 stab wounds. When Katelnytsky's sister tried to enter the apartment in which
the crime had been committed, she was roughed up by Kyiv police. Some members of the
Katelnytsky family were arrested. The murders are considered to have been politically
motivated. Volodymyr Katelnytsky's funeral was attended by some two thousand mourners.
The life of Volodymyr Katelnytsky
Volodymyr Katelnytsky was a professional journalist. He was active in the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate, was head of the Brotherhood of St. Andrej
Pervozvanyi in Kyiv, and supervised the tour of the chief cities of Ukraine by
Metropolitan Wasyl in May 1993. He was also active politically, serving as Deputy Head
of the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party. In Canada and the United States, he may be
best remembered for the role he played as President of the Committee for the Defense of
John Demjanjuk.
Also prominent among Volodymyr Katelnytsky's activities was the dissemination of a
Ukrainian version of what happened at Babyn Yar, similar, I believe, to the version
advocated on the Ukrainian Archive. One result of Volodymyr Katelnytsky's Babyn Yar
activities is that he was sued for them by Jewish organizations in Ukrainian court, that
in his defense he brought forward historical aerial reconnaissance photographs showing
that none of the activities said to have taken place at Babyn Yar was visible from the
air - not visible, that is, were signs of the execution and burial of 33,771 Jews, or
